Facebook to Buy PrivateCore to Strengthen Data Defenses

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. is acquiring
PrivateCore, a startup that makes software for protecting data,
to strengthen the security of its systems.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Facebook has been
working to improve the security of its social network with
encryption and the PrivateCore acquisition is part of the move
to build up defenses, Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said
in an online post.

Breaches and hacks have become common, straining the
relationship of companies with their customers whose data may
get compromised. Earlier this week, a U.S. security company said
a gang of hackers in Russia had amassed 1.2 billion sets of
looted user names and passwords. Companies from Target Corp. to
EBay Inc. to Snapchat Inc. have also experienced breaches within
the past year.

“Over time, we plan to deploy PrivateCore’s technology
directly into the Facebook server stack,” Sullivan wrote in his
post.

Facebook saves everything its more than 1 billion users
create, with its servers prioritizing saving a photo of dinner
just as much as a photo of a wedding. In recent years, the
company has taken more direct responsibility for all the data,
moving much of it to servers the Menlo Park, California-based
company designed itself.

PrivateCore, based in Palo Alto, California, was founded in
2012 by security veterans from Google Inc. and VMware Inc.,
according to the company’s website. The startup is backed by
Foundation Capital

PrivateCore Chief Executive Officer Oded Horovitz wrote in
a blog post that joining with Facebook gives the company scale
to let it pursue making “the world’s connections more secure.”